Compare And Contrast Between Macbeth And Paradise Lost

Mackenzie Parker

Instructor Name

English

18 December 2019

Macbeth and Paradise Lost

There are several thematic and structural when it comes to Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Many scholars agree that there is a noticeable resemblance between Shakespeare's Macbeth and the Milton's Satan in several different ways also, there are still many scholars agree that there is also an overlapping of role in Satan with Lady Macbeth as the latter is somewhat more involved in putting words into Macbeth's head, which is regarded in modern theology as the explicit work of Satan.

The first and most noticeable similarity between Satan and Macbeth is there an extreme focus on ambition. Satan has the ambition to defeat Christ and gain his top place in Paradise next to God himself. Similarly, there is Macbeth's focus to become the king of Scotland and rule both black and white. Both Satan and Macbeth suffer because of their ambition and their consequences. However, the fall of Macbeth is prophesized by three witches while Satan takes the fall solely as a consequence of exercising his own free will.

There is a rather different attitude of the reader when it comes to the fate of both Satan and Macbeth. The fall of Macbeth is not viewed as an agonizing event as he did not suffer in hell, as Satan has done. Also, the reader cannot help but feel a certain sympathetic attitude towards the fate of Macbeth as he had been a noble hero at one time who was later corrupted by ambition to rule Scotland. Contrary to that, Satan has a constantly rebellious nature as he intends to upset the divine order by conspiring against Men and cause other various mischiefs. This behavior makes Satan the target of God’s wrath unlike Macbeth who falls at the hands of the person “not born of a woman”.

There are also the resemblances of the progress of the role of Macbeth and Satan. Macbeth is a hero that slowly turns paranoid and starts to murder his close companions that had helped him rise to power. Satan is also presented as a hero in the first two books of Milton’s Paradise Lost, after which he loses all favor with God and ends up in the depths of Hell. This highlights a certain trend apparent to the reader. Both Satan and Macbeth rise to the apex of power and then destroyed by pride in the same likeliness. Both are not competent for power yet both manage to rise to the highest levels. Both establish a rule that is based on cruelty and deception. Both are constantly bothered by their conscious. Both are forced to live the rest of their days as an outcast as Satan is permanently cast to Hell while Macbeth is forced to live in a state of psychological isolation from his friends that had helped him to rise to power.

In the end, it can be concluded that both the character shares an astounding resemblance. Both characters seem to be similar and different at the same time. Both characters are shaped by their destiny by the virtue of their deeds, rather than their fates. But most importantly, it was their ambition that proved to be their downfall. If it was not for the ambition of Satan to rule the paradise under God and the goal of Macbeth to maintain his grip on the throne of Scotland, they would have still be remembered as the good guys. Lastly, both may a difference in role as divine and mortal beings, but both were the brightest stars of their respective literacy pieces before they turned dark.